Yemeni gunmen shoot five dead after president agrees to step down

Source: The Guardian

Pro-government gunmen shot five people dead in the Yemeni capital on Thursday, a day after the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, signed a deal agreeing to end his 33-year rule in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

The bloodshed coincided with a bout of fierce clashes between youth activists and opposition leaders, casting doubt over whether the US-backed transition plan signed on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia would succeed in easing tensions in the country.

A brief spell of jubilation gave way to fury on Thursday as thousands of young men and women stormed past government buildings stamping their feet and shouting, "The revolution continues" and, "No immunity for the murderers".

Witnesses said that as the crowd neared the foreign ministry a group of gunmen dressed in traditional Yemeni garb flung rocks and fired automatic weapons directly at the demonstrators. Among the dozens laid out on blood-soaked stretchers in a nearby field hospital was a six-year-old boy named Abuldrahman, his head split open by a stray rock.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/24/yemen-gunmen-shoot-five-dead